United Airlines Blows Doors Off With January RASM Estimate

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I’m sitting here waiting for final edits to be done on this week’s issue of PBB, and was just looking at the wild party going on with airline stocks today.

In case some of you are wondering what is going on with the sector today — which is up significantly across the board — United Airlines issued the first of its revised format traffic reports after the close of the market yesterday.

As CFO Kathy Mikells discussed in the airline’s recent earnings call — and we talked about in PlaneBusiness Banter — she is attempting to increase the level of transparency in the airline’s financial reporting. As a result, the airline is now going to provide a RASM estimate, along with the usual traffic information in its monthly traffic release. The airline is also going to provide an update as to its current fuel costs.

Airlines like Continental, JetBlue, and US Airways already provide RASM estimates when they report their monthly traffic numbers.

When the new-look United Airlines release hit the wires last night — all of us received quite a shock.

The airline easily blew past analyst forecast RASM numbers — as the airline estimated that its RASM in January was up between 9.5% and 11.5%. Analysts had forecast a figure somewhere between 3% and 6% — depending on the analyst.

So — there you go. That is why airline stocks are frolicking today.

At last check, shares of United were up 17% for the day, trading at about 15.28.